Researcher shares concern about water quality at two locations in New Hanover County

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Researchers are taking a close look at what may be in two bodies of water in New Hanover County.

Back in November, a presentation was shown to New Hanover County commissioners about the water quality of the 8 creeks located throughout the county.

In all but one, water quality was generally positive, but Pages Creek has continued to show poor water quality, even after years of monitoring and attempts at finding solutions.

“So in my mind, the Pages Creek thing is the number one issue,” said Brad Rosov, a senior marine biologist with Coastal Protection Engineering.

He said Pages Creek has regularly shown it exceeds the state standards for bacteria caused by fecal contamination from warm-blooded animals.

While that bacteria is itself not an issue, Rosov said studies have helped determine what creatures are causing the contamination.

“And sure enough, we did find in our studies, each of our studies that we’ve done over the years, that there was a human signal in the water for this bacteria, meaning that there is a human waste contamination getting into the creek someplace.”

He also said there are concerns about the lake at Airlie Gardens, saying that too many nutrients are getting into the lake, which is causing large algae blooms to form.

The concerns, according to Rosov, aren’t about a potential impact on human health, but rather how the lake looks to visitors.

“It’s the aesthetics of what is kind of one of these, like crown jewels of New Hanover County, is Airlie Gardens, and the lake is a big feature within Airlie Gardens and you’ve got tourism and residents who enjoy the lake or enjoy the Airlie Gardens as a whole. You know to see that thing with, you know, floating fish and green waters in there is not something that we want to see.”

Rosov said both bodies of water are areas of concern, with commissioners moving forward with a study set to start in July to try to find any upstream sources of fecal contamination in Pages Creek.

Rosov said the study will take about 6 months, and preliminary results are not expected to be available until late next year.